Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coating press for multi-face foil coating of work pieces. The coating press includes a work table loaded with the work pieces. The work table is introduced into the coating press on a tray carriage and is supported on a bottom press plate in the coating press.
Presses used for simultaneously coating flat work pieces such as furniture boards on one of its surfaces and all of its marginal edges are known in the art. In such presses, the work pieces are placed on bases. The bases are disposed on a bottom press plate and the edges of the bases are set back relative to the edges of the work piece. In this manner, foil fed from above will encompass the work piece surface and the marginal edges of the work piece under the action of positive pressure applied from above and/or negative pressure applied from the bottom. This implies that a size-adapted base must be provided for any and each particular work piece and therefore bases must be kept in stock and be available on short call. In addition, the bases need to be manually installed which results in unnecessary handling time and expense, and which may give rise to errors and malfunctions.
A press with a support system for plate-shaped work pieces is known from German Utility Model DE 295 00 248 U. The support system has work piece support plugs. The support plugs are taken from receiving holes in a plug plate and then inserted into adjacent plug holes in conformity with a predetermined loading pattern in such a way that a work piece may be placed thereon and raised relative to said plug plate.
Such a support system has the drawback that a loading pattern conforming to the work pieces needs to be calculated for each press cycle. However, when it is discovered on the upstream side of the press that an uncoated work piece is for instance missing or defective, then a work piece of identical size must be used as a substitute. This is often impossible because the storage yard and the processing area are arranged in different locations resulting in waiting and production outage times. Loading smaller-sized work pieces is not desirous because unoccupied support plugs might impede the complete coating of the side faces. Loading a larger work piece involves the risk that the work piece is inadequately supported and that unsupported areas might break off due to the high pressures per unit area that prevail inside of the press.